Pretty sure you're right taragel, a 40-year peace wouldn't leave younger pilots any opportunities for combat since the Colonies' only enemies were the Cylons and they'd stopped fighting each other after unification.

I only added the "possibly" bit re: Kara's combat experience on the off chance that there were rioting civilians/terrorist groups like Zarek's big enough for the military to worry about them (don't really think so), and that Kara might have been involved in one of those. I doubt it, though - in my head the miniseries really is the younger gen's first combat. And boy, they learned quickly...